Interacting branching processes and linear file-sharing networks

TL;DR

This paper models file-sharing networks using interacting branching processes to analyze their capacity under continuous request flow, providing new insights into their stochastic behavior and performance limits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel stochastic model linking interacting branching processes to file-sharing network capacity analysis, with new theoretical results on these processes.

Findings

Derived asymptotic behavior of interacting branching processes

Analyzed network capacity under continuous request flow

Provided theoretical insights into file-sharing system performance

Abstract

File-sharing networks are distributed systems used to disseminate files among nodes of a communication network. The general simple principle of these systems is that once a node has retrieved a file, it may become a server for this file. In this paper, the capacity of these networks is analyzed with a stochastic model when there is a constant flow of incoming requests for a given file. It is shown that the problem can be solved by analyzing the asymptotic behavior of a class of interacting branching processes. Several results of independent interest concerning these branching processes are derived and then used to study the file-sharing systems.